Thursday, May 24, 2012

A rather momentous occasion happened this past weekend in contemporary Christian music. Well, momentous is a relative word, I guess. To those of us Third Day fans known as Gomers ("psycho fans who we don't know whether to hug or call security on," as described with a smile by Mac Powell), it was downright momentous.

We Gomers are a tight-knit family of Third Day fans, formed in 2001 by Corrine Johnson (Mama Gomer). Gomers travel from city to city to see Third Day performances, to meet and worship with other Gomers, and to support the band's ministry. We're named after Third Day's song, "Gomer's Theme," from the "Conspiracy No. 5" album. The song is about Gomer from the book of Hosea, and God's unconditional and never-failing love for every one of us, no matter what we've done or who we are.

2012 marks Third Day's 20th year as a band. To celebrate this wonderful achievement, and in honor of how much Third Day's music and ministry has done in our lives, more than 50 of us gathered from six states and traveled thousands of miles to surprise Mac, Mark, Tai and David of Third Day with a special celebration at last weekend's concert in Raleigh, NC.

As our gift of appreciation, we gave each of the Third Day guys a digitally-produced 100-page hardbound scrapbook containing photographs and letters from dozens of Gomers that described how Third Day's music has changed their lives and what the band's ministry has meant to them.

Mac, Mark, Tai and David were genuinely touched, and spent a lot of time pouring over the books. Mac also made sure to let the crowd that night know what had happened before the show, and the band went out of their way to sing as many of our song requests as they could - even the "old school" songs no one but long-time Third Day fans know. From the older songs to ones from their recent "Move" album, Third Day's performance throughout the entire evening was one of the best we've ever experienced. It was an absolutely awesome and emotional night of song, prayer and celebration.

We shared the night with our entire Gomer family through Twitter - with our own hashtag #G3NC, created by Mama Gomer herself - and by posting to our Facebook group. Hundreds of Gomers were able to join our gathering with the band, even though they couldn't come to Raleigh with us. The Gomer community is very close and it was important that we made sure to include everyone in the celebration.

The next day, some of us were able to travel to Myrtle Beach, SC, to see Third Day perform on Saturday night at BeachFest. Again, Mac talked about the Gomer gathering and celebration the night before, and how appreciative they all are of their fans' continuous dedication throughout the years.

The weekend was truly, truly unforgettable for us, and I think we might have made it just a tad unforgettable for the guys, too.

We can't thank you enough, Third Day, for how each of you and your music has touched our lives and allowed us to spread God's love.

For more information about Third Day, go to www.thirdday.com and follow them on Twitter at @thirdday. (Photos courtesy of www.thirdday.com.)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

(Before I begin this post, let it be known that poor John from Jesus Freak Hideout asked me in the fall of '08 to do a blog post for him. That was 2 and a half years ago! I don't know if he should get a prize for patience, or if I should get a prize for finally following through! At any rate, thanks for sharing your platform with me. I hope this becomes a regular thing! Here goes nothing... -Mark Lee, Third Day)

A few weeks ago, Third Day had the opportunity to travel to Brazil to perform a concert. Just a few days later we traveled to Haiti with World Vision to see some of the work they are doing there. During the brief time at home between I mentioned the two trips to a friend of mine. He promptly replied "Man, you guys are going worldwide!" Now, being the musician I am, my brain will quickly connect statements it hears into song lyrics, and my internal stereo will start to play the corresponding song. It's great in a case like this when the result is a killer song like Adam Again's "Worldwide". Not so good when somebody uses "karma chameleon" in a sentence.

As I pondered the lyrics to this song, I could relate to the frustration that writer Gene Eugene must have felt. There were big problems in the world and horrible things happening for no apparent reason. He wanted to do something about them, but he didn't know where to start. And besides, the best you can hope for is for a few people to "put stickers on their bumper". There are still big problems in the world, not to mention the fact that there are now seven billion people instead of Gene's three. It's enough to make you want to throw your hands up in the air and give up.

But then I think of some of the other things we've seen as we've traveled "worldwide". We've seen the generosity of people working with groups like World Vision and Habitat for Humanity in places like Lesotho and South Africa, doing their own small part to make a difference. We've seen thousands of people in a field in New Zealand or a rock club in London, raising their hands in worship. We've seen people of different colors worshipping together in South Africa, singing praises to God in different languages. We've seen the passion of hundreds of thousands of people in Brazil, singing every word to every song of praise to God, again in a language I don't comprehend. And just recently we saw in Haiti worship being lead by a band of students who were all sponsored by World Vision.

I see things like this and I get fired up. Maybe I do only know a few people. But I take heart in the fact that I know God, and I've seen glimpses of what he's up to. I may not know all these people I see, but they all share my goal of knowing God. Yes, there are a lot of horrible things happening in the world. But God is also doing some amazing things all over the world, and he wants us to be a part of it. And that is an encouraging thought.

If the only thing that comes out of this post is that you track down and listen to the awesomeness that is "Worldwide", I say hang the banner, mission accomplished. But think about doing a little more. Try to see the world from God's perspective. We've drawn up borders creating different countries and the world expects us to only care about those within our own borders. To do this is to sell ourselves a little short. And God wants more. He wants us to think "worldwide".

Check out "Worldwide" by Adam Again (iTunes link). Read Matthew 28:16-20, and pray for God to give you a "worldwide" perspective.